In an atmosphere of pre-electoral campaign, the Parliament adopted Wednesday, December 15 the last budget of the five-year term of Emmanuel Macron, after a final vote of the National Assembly. The text was voted by 142 votes in favor, 50 against and one abstention. If the majority welcomes good growth forecasts (+ 6.25% for 2021, + 4% for 2022), the left and the right criticize a project “Electoralist” four months from the presidential election.
After opening the floodgates on public spending to safeguard the economy in the face of Covid-19 with “whatever the cost”, the 2022 budget project aimed to channel while taking into account the persistent epidemic threat. According to his forecasts, the deficit will be reduced to 5% of GDP, but the country’s debt will reach a record level of 113.5% of GDP next year – far from the promises of the start of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate, epidemic obliges .
While there is almost unanimity in favor of securing the budgets of sovereign ministries, the executive has defended its record by posting the increases promised for the interior, defense, education, research or justice. The government has also increased the number of promises and announcements by adding them throughout the budget discussion: France 2030 investment plan, plan for Marseille, “youth engagement contract” for those under 26, tariff shield measures to fight against soaring energy prices.
The Constitutional Council soon to be seized
More than 200 government amendments have been adopted, widening the state’s balance by 12 billion euros more than the initial bill, highlighted the chairman of the Assembly’s finance committee, Eric Woerth ( The Republicans). The government built this budget ” in “live” as the events unfold ”, said Mr. Woerth, criticizing the bad manners of Bercy with regard to parliamentary work.
“We cannot support this campaign budget”, launched Véronique Louwagie (LR), who castigated a text “Disastrous for the finances of France”, with an increase in debt of more than 680 billion euros under the five-year term. At the other end of the hemicycle, the Communist Jean-Paul Dufrègne saw “The expression of ‘president of the rich’ indelibly inscribed” on this legislature. “It’s an electoral budget doubled by a class budget”, said socialist Christine Pires Beaune. Left and right have already announced their intention to seize the Constitutional Council. The right-wing Senate has twice rejected consideration of a budget that “Seriously mortgage the future”.
LRM deputy Alexandre Holroyd for his part lambasted “The junk Thatchers who scour the TV sets” by accusing the government of“To have burnt the cash register”, explicitly targeting the candidate Les Républicains in the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse. “There is still a lot to do (…). We do not regulate forty years of dropping out in a five-year term “, he added. After two years marked by spending to deal with the health crisis, the LRM general rapporteur of the finance committee, Laurent Saint-Martin, believes that the roadmap is clear for the next budgets. “The next five-year period will be a five-year period for consolidating our public finances”, he warned.